Saturday, September 26, 2015

It's all change.

My sister is at this very moment about to take off for Geneva where
she will re-join her husband, who has pitched up there after a
successful cycling trip. Then, a few days later, they will move on to
Rachel and Ed in London, and a few days after that, back to CT –
where they must decide whether to accept the apartment in the
retirement community in DC which has turned up earlier than they
expected.

Rachel and Ed's youngest, Lizzie –
the recent graduate from B'ham University, the bride's sister – is
leaving today, I think, for the antipodes, where she will spend some
time with friends living hand-to-mouth and seeing the world, before
facing up to its responsibilities. Poor Rachel is facing the loss
bravely, but it's hard.

And I made a good start yesterday at
organizing this house for my husband's return. All will be well if I
keep at it. I have an appt to have a key safe installed, so that I don't have to stand at the door all day letting people in and preventing the escape of the cat.

Knitting

I've pretty well reached the half-way
point on the second Dunfallandy square. It's hard and very fiddly,
but so far, compulsively fun. This evening I think I will lay it
aside and curl up with the sleeveless vest and Downton Abbey.

I'm a bit concerned about the edge. The
four squares, when complete, will be sewn together into a diamond.
Eight half-squares are then required to fill in the corners and bring
the whole shape back to a square. Then you pick up stitches for the
border – almost all of them the cast-off stitches of the
half-squares.

The half-squares finish with 52
stitches each. That's 104 stitches per side. Add three perhaps for
the cast-on or bound-off tip of the square in the middle of the side,
and a couple of extras at the corner: but the instructions say to
pick up 174.

Can that possibly be right? Only two
Ravellers seem actually to have finished the blankie. A couple of
squares and then the UFO basket seems its more usual fate. Both of
those who finished mention trouble with the count. But the designer
is so careful, and the proof-reading so meticulous, that it would
seem prudent to believe her on this point. I'll think about it.

3 comments:

With any luck by the time you get the other squares finished there will be an answer to the border pick up. Is that the brother in law who had the stroke at the last wedding? He has made a splendid recovery, then.

Wouldn't it make more sense to put the formerly cast-off stitches onto waste yarn instead of casting off, and then you don't have to pick up stitches for the border?I suppose the blanket might need the stability of the cast-offs, but it does seem like more work than necessary.(Hates picking up stitches from any edge except a slip-stitch one)